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Does sleeping orientation (pointing one's head in a specific direction) has anything to do with any health problems(even minor ones)?

If Earth's magnetic field has any detrimental effects on our brains, then the orientation of our sleeping posture might have an affect on our body.

AIB
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1 Answers1

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No

There are no detrimental effects on the human body of static magnetic fields. This goes for even strong magnetic fields and certainly weak magnetic fields like the Earth's have no influence whatsoever.

Ref: Safety of Strong, Static Magnetic Fields

Issues associated with the exposure of patients to strong, static magnetic fields during magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are reviewed and discussed. The history of human exposure to magnetic fields is reviewed, and the contradictory nature of the literature regarding effects on human health is described. In the absence of ferromagnetic foreign bodies, there is no replicated scientific study showing a health hazard associated with magnetic field exposure and no evidence for hazards associated with cumulative exposure to these fields. The very high degree of patient safety in strong magnetic fields is attributed to the small value of the magnetic susceptibility of human tissues and to the lack of ferromagnetic components in these tissues.

Oddthinking
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Lennart Regebro
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  • Is there any other factor influencing our body when we sleep ,pointing our head toward north? – AIB May 25 '11 at 09:47
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    @AIB: No there isn't. – Lennart Regebro May 25 '11 at 10:24
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    @Lennart - wrong. Very frequently, buildings are constructed with certain orientation. So that direction of sleeping may affect, e.g. drafts from the window etc... (I personally get significantly worse health-wise if there's a draft near my head when I sleep, even when warm. So if a room is built with northward windows for thermal reasons in sunny climate, and prevailing winds in the location are from the north, the effects are material. Nothing to do with magnetism, of course. – user5341 May 25 '11 at 15:28
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    @DVK: And more importantly nothing to do with the *compass direction* you sleep in. – Lennart Regebro May 25 '11 at 18:22
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    @DVK: I agree with Lennart, here. Your example of drafts points to a correlation between drafts and sleeping; those same drafts would apply regardless of compass orientation. "North" is not affecting anything. – MrHen May 25 '11 at 18:31
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    @MrHen - the drafts are affected by where the window is (which IS sometimes affected by compass directions, based on thermal considerations); and prevailing winds (which is also possibly affected by compass directions). It's not the "north" part, but specific direction - could just as likely be "south" – user5341 May 26 '11 at 14:04
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    @DVK: If my bed was a big circle with my pillow as the center and I simply changed my orientation in that bed (without moving the bed itself) would my compass direction affect my health? I mean, the answer to this _could_ be yes but it seems like a misattribution of cause to me. But by all means, answer the question with your own evidence. – MrHen May 26 '11 at 14:16
  • @MrHen - Compass direction (in my scenario) affects the drafts. Which affect the health. So, in that specific scenario, changing your body's orientation relative to compass direction WILL affect the health; but it would obviously not be related to where the North is and only related to where the house window was built. – user5341 May 26 '11 at 14:22
  • @DVK: Fair enough. I think we've reached a standstill. :) – MrHen May 26 '11 at 14:23
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    @DVK: It's not the compass direction that affects the health, it's your position relative to the drafts. A northern room might be colder and have more drafts, but sleeping in exactly the same compass direction in another room would not have the negative effects. Hence it is *not* the compass direction that is the problem. Full stop. – Lennart Regebro May 26 '11 at 14:29
  • @Lennart - depends on how you define "compass direction" =- where the compass actually magnetically points, or where the compass arrow on your printed map points. E.g. if magnetic poles shifted significantly tomorrow, then live "compass directions" would change, but the map and window location would not, so you'd still be affected by the drafts. As noted in my very first comment, it's not related to magnetism, but to physical direction. – user5341 May 26 '11 at 15:13
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    @DVK: No, it doesn't depend on that either. It's not the compass direction that is the problem, it's the drafts. You are wrong, sorry. I don't think me repeating this more will help. :) – Lennart Regebro May 26 '11 at 15:23
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    @DVK If you built two copies of the same building with the same drafts, one pointing North and one West, the person in the first would have a problem sleeping North and the other the same problems sleeping West. Ergo it's nothing to do with the actual direction. – DJClayworth Jun 14 '11 at 13:55
  • I think this answer is correct, but it should be extended. For example, it should be pointed out that by changing the orientation of the building changes in lighting / air flow / surrounding features should be more important than earth's magnetic field, not to mention surrounding wiring generating electric fields. Personal experiences are given as a proof in the comments, but we must not forget the "placebo effect" created by each person's cultural background. – Bigger Oct 25 '14 at 05:50
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    @マルちゃんだよ As pointed out, magnetic fields, from the earth or otherwise, has no measurable effect. Hence compass direction has no effect. That other things that are NOT compass direction can have effect is irrelevant, and does not need mentioning, and would in fact just muddle the waters. – Lennart Regebro Oct 25 '14 at 13:02